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<p>IOWA CITY — A tough break for Iowa, Matt VandeBerg’s broken foot.</p>
<p>Not to be flippant about it, mind you. A broken foot is a pretty
terrible thing for anyone. It’s especially not great for a senior
wide receiver who had blossomed into a significant player.</p>
<p>But if you aren’t him, you can look with detachment and say
that’s football. Bones get broken, bodies get busted up, and
that’s why the major-college version has 85 scholarships instead
of basketball’s 13.</p>
<p>Other sports have injuries. Football has injury lists. The Big
Ten has quite the list of its own.</p>
<p>Penn State’s three starting linebackers all missed last
Saturday’s game at Michigan, and Nyeem Wartman-White has been
ruled out for the season with a torn ACL.</p>
<p>Michigan cornerback Jeremy Clark tore an ACL in that game against
Penn State, and is out for the season.</p>
<p>Michigan State linebacker Jon Reschke will be out “a significant
amount of time” according to MSU Coach Mark Dantonio after
injuring an ankle last Saturday against Wisconsin, and senior
linebacker Riley Bullough missed that game because of an injured
shoulder.</p>
<p>Even kickers can get a kick in the pants from injuries.
Wisconsin’s Rafael Gaglianone, who made the game-winning field
goal against LSU on the season’s first Saturday, didn’t play at
Michigan State because of a back injury.</p>
<p>Nebraska freshman De’Mornay Pierson-El broke Iowa in the fourth
quarter of their 2014 game when he had two punt returns for 121
yards, one for a touchdown.</p>
<p>He didn’t play against the Hawkeyes last year because he missed
the season’s last four games with a torn ACL. He missed the first
four with a foot fracture.</p>
<p>Pierson-El has played in all four games this season, but has yet
to perform like he did two years ago.</p>
<p>“Still getting back in each game, I feel like I’m getting closer
and closer,” <a
href="http://journalstar.com/sports/huskers/football/pierson-el-still-working-out-mental-kinks-following-serious-knee/article_2f8d5435-bd14-5e40-9d6f-d4a674b25557.html"
target="_blank">he told the Lincoln Journal Star</a>. “It’s just
still ... I don’t know, I feel like it’s just something’s missing
still.”</p>
<p>An injury in last Saturday’s Iowa-Rutgers game helped the
Hawkeyes win.</p>
<p>With 4:35 left in the first half, Rutgers senior receiver
Janarion Grant caught a screen pass and broke four tackles in
going 76 yards to the Iowa 3. But Iowa cornerback Desmond King
grabbed Grant by the shoulder pads and stepped on the upper part
of his right ankle, injuring it severely. Grant was carted off the
field.</p>
<p>Rutgers couldn’t punch the ball in the end zone from the 3 after
that, and was inefficient in similar territory in the fourth
quarter. Not having Grant, the team’s most-dangerous offensive and
special teams player, limited the Scarlet Knights’ options.</p>
<p>Grant’s season, and perhaps college career, is over. The NCAA
rules that you can’t have played in more than 30 percent of your
team’s regular-season games to be eligible for a medical redshirt
season, and Grant has played in 33.3 percent.</p>
<p>Rutgers Coach Chris Ash said he would petition the NCAA for Grant
to get another season of eligibility. Iowa will do the same on
behalf of VandeBerg.</p>
<p>“We’ll certainly appeal it,” Iowa Coach Kirk Ferentz said.</p>
<p>“I won’t even try to predict, but hopefully there will be some
leniency there.”</p>
<p>Oh, Rutgers also lost defensive end Quanzell Lambert, who was
seen rolling around on the turf clutching a knee in pain after
tackling Hawkeye running back LeShun Daniels in the fourth
quarter.</p>
<p>Lambert is a redshirt senior. His career, too, is probably over.</p>
<p>“I’m willing to go out and sacrifice on every snap,” Lambert said
in August. He had no idea how true that would ring. Or maybe he
did.</p>
<p>Well, you know the popular football saying: Next reasonably
healthy body in.</p>
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